The winner of KickBack’s Fantasy Football contest, which includes two tickets to the NFL’s Big Game in New Jersey, round trip airfare for two and a hotel stay in Times Square, graciously donates her Grand Prize to 16-year-old Austin Lange, a local Idaho boy stricken with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Austin Lange has fought many battles over the past year. He has struggled with cancer and felt the devastating effects of chemotherapy. But Austin and his mom, Beth Ann Cooper, received some heartwarming news thanks to a KickBack Points cardholder in Idaho

A regular customer at the Mr. Gas in Rupert, Idaho, was the winner of Kickback’s annual Fantasy Football contest, which includes two tickets to the Super Bowl at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, roundtrip airfare for two to New York and hotel accommodations in New York’s Times Square. But after learning of Austin’s struggles from the local newspaper and through her church group, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, reached out to KickBack with a special request for her Grand Prize: She wanted to donate it to Austin.

“It is such a tremendous feeling for me to be able to give a gift like this to someone as strong and courageous as Austin,” she said. “I am grateful to KickBack because without this contest I would have never had the opportunity to give such a wonderful gift to someone as deserving as Austin.”

Austin and Beth Ann will leave for New York on Friday, January 31. For Austin, it is a dream come true. “When I got the phone call telling me what was happening, I was speechless. I couldn’t believe I would actually get the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl and visit New York,” said Austin, who added he will be rooting for the Seattle Seahawks.

“I am both humbled and inspired by the generosity of this year’s KickBack Fantasy Football game winner. While I respect her wishes to remain anonymous, I can’t help but wish for positive recognition to come her way,” said Pat Lewis, CEO of KickBack Rewards Systems. “What she has done for Austin is simply amazing and I like to believe that her generosity will come back to her someday. We are honored to be a part of this special opportunity for a very deserving young man.”

Special Opportunity Moved by the winner’s generosity, KickBack Points decided to sweeten the experience to make this a very special weekend for Austin and Beth Ann. Knowing that Austin’s favorite band was the Red Hot Chili Peppers and that they would be performing at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn the night before the game, KickBack contacted the venue as well as the band’s management and secured tickets and backstage passes for Austin and his Mom. “I can’t wait to see the look on his face when we tell him that he gets to go backstage and meet the band! We are keeping that part a surprise.,” said Miranda Henning, KickBack’s Marketing Director.

Not to be outdone, Phillips 66, upon hearing Austin’s story, joined with KickBack to add spending money, meals, VIP transportation and NFL autographed memorabilia to make this a real unforgettable VIP weekend for him.

“There have been so many ups and downs for Austin since he was first diagnosed last February. He missed out on so many things like getting to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers when they were in Idaho, or going to the Pro Bowl with the Make-A-Wish Foundation because he was too sick to travel,” Beth Ann said. “But this opportunity came to us at the right time and thanks to this generous woman and the KickBack team, we are able to give Austin the experience of a lifetime.”

KickBack’s Fantasy Football promotion, just ended its first year, was an extremely successful one for the company. During the contest, KickBack cardholders earned one new fantasy football player every time they use their KickBack Points card. The players were displayed at the bottom of their receipt.

Cardholders then earned Fantasy Football points based on their players’ game performance every week. Weekly points accumulated over the entire course of the pro football season. The KickBack cardholder with the most points was awarded the grand prize.

During the promotion, nearly 3 million players were given out to customers, plus the number of transactions, frequency of visits to stores, average transactions per day and average redemptions per store all experienced double-digit growth for participating retailers during the life of the promotion.

Convenience store and petroleum retailers interested in participating in Fantasy Football or future KickBack promotions can contact marketing@kickbackpoints.com or visit www.kickbacksystems.com

ABOUT KICKBACK REWARDS SYSTEMS Twin Falls, Idaho based KickBack Rewards Systems (KRS) was formed in 1999 to help retailers reward their best customers as well as gain unparalleled insight into their consumer demographics and their shopping habits. Over the years, KRS’s award-winning solutions have not only helped it’s clients improve their understanding of their customers, but it has also introduced innovative marketing solutions making it possible to act on the accrued data. The result has been increased frequency of store visits and ticket averages, and lower turnover for thousands of clients across the United States and Canada. The bottom line is KickBack delivers a better bottom line. Learn about our solutions at www.kickbacksystems.com.

ABOUT AUSTIN LANGE Austin Lange is a 16-year-old high school junior from Declo, Idaho. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013. Read more about Austin’s fight by visiting http://bit.ly/1dH6SJM.

Online Partners

Browse the latest issue of Convenience Store Decisions and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading C-Store magazine today.

Convenience Directions

The Convenience Directions concept has been in place for over 15 years in the convenience store industry. What we do is very unique in that
we combine the InfoMarketing newsletter, which is mailed quarterly to over 10,000 c-store executives, with three Idea Exchange meetings.

Print Subscription

NAG Convenience Conference

The National Advisory Group (NAG) is a dues paying association committed to building relationships and profits. NAG’s mission is to provide retail leaders of small to mid-size and family-owned convenience chains a peer-to-peer forum for the exchange of ideas to improve their business performance.